The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 226: If Ming Dynasty can do it, then so can I.

Faced with Duan Yucai's resolute and firm stance, the Spanish Prime Minister sighed helplessly, knowing that there was no way to continue the discussion.

The other party's bargaining was too harsh, which I felt was too outrageous, and at the same time, I had no way to make a decision.

This business probably won't be done, and the king and queen will probably be unhappy when they get back.

The preliminary negotiations between the two parties ended like this, and everyone enjoyed the wine and food at the banquet with different thoughts.

After the banquet, the Spanish Prime Minister and Godoy led the Spanish delegation to leave the Forbidden City and return to the Honglu Temple Posthouse to discuss the current situation internally.

The Spanish Prime Minister said to the crowd in despair:

"I think we can prepare to return. The Ming Dynasty has no sincerity in the deal, otherwise it would not even agree to my final condition."

Godoy still had some hope:

"Should we wait a few more days? Try to meet the Emperor and Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty alone and negotiate with them directly.

"Try to plead with them to make some final concessions for the sake of the friendship between the two royal families?"

Godoy was the head of the mission and the representative of the king and queen, but he was young and inexperienced and could only consult the more experienced prime minister.

The Spanish Prime Minister spread his hands helplessly and said:
“Instead of that, we will directly ask to return and ask the Honglu Temple of the Ming Dynasty to arrange a ship to escort us.

"If the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty had the intention to make concessions, he should have tried to retain us a little and put forward his bottom line conditions.

“If you really don’t want to give in, and if what Minister Duan said is the bottom line, then you won’t stop us.

"In that case, we really have no choice but to return and consult His Majesty the King."

Godoy had no good ideas and finally accepted the Prime Minister's advice.

The next morning, Godoy formally submitted his resignation to the Ming Dynasty Honglu Temple in accordance with the Prime Minister's advice.

The Honglu Temple immediately sent the news to Duan Yucai, who was in charge of the negotiations.

At the same time, the normal government procedures were followed and the report was reported directly to Zhu Jianxuan.

Duan Yucai immediately went to see Zhu Jianxuan after receiving the notice and explained the negotiation process and the Spanish attitude:

"So, Your Highness, should we make some concessions?"

Zhu Jianxuan waved his hand directly:
"Let them go. These representatives cannot decide anything. Even if we give in now, they will have to go back and consult their king and queen.

“Besides, we’ve already got California, which Father wanted, so there’s no need to worry about the rest of North America.

“The Suez Canal is about to open, which will give them a good chance to earn more money for a few years.

"They tried to repair the Panama Canal themselves, but they couldn't do it themselves. Only then did they realize the gap between us."

Zhu Jianxuan knew in his heart that the Spaniards really couldn't repair it.

Not only the Spanish couldn't repair it, but now no one except the Ming people could repair this kind of canal.

If Europeans were better at repairing it, they would have done it long ago in history.

Historically, the Spanish considered it for almost a hundred years and finally decided to formally plan to build the canal, but the Latin American independence movement had already begun.

Latin America became independent and Spain had no way to build the canal.

Independent Latin American countries also considered building a canal, but due to the interference of European powers and internal forces, they struggled for nearly a hundred years.

In the end, it was the United States that became the de facto hegemon of the Americas and built the Panama Canal itself after completing the Second Industrial Revolution.

It was already the 20th century, and the United States had chosen the relatively simple lock solution, but it still took a lot of effort.

Even if Latin America is not independent now, even if Spain tries to deal with it on its own, it cannot do better than the Americans in the early twentieth century.

Spain is now in decline, while the United States was at its peak at that time.

The Europeans' ability to manage large-scale projects was only gradually developed after the emergence of modern monopoly enterprises.

Before that, they were an order of magnitude behind the Shenzhou Empire in terms of large-scale engineering projects.

Because the European tradition is the feudal system, the feudal lords, big and small, in Europe were actually semi-independent monarchs of small countries with a small population.

They each managed their own affairs and did not consider matters on the scale of the entire kingdom.

Before modern times, Europe had never experienced large-scale wars like the turbulent times in China.

Their administrative agencies have never managed so many people, let alone organized an event involving more than 100,000 people.

It was not until the rise of nationalism and the Napoleonic era that wars involving hundreds of thousands of people occurred.

This can only be achieved by relying on nationalist thought.

In contrast, the foundation of the Shenzhou Empire and its dynasty was "leading the people to control the rivers."

It was because of the strength he gathered from river management and the recognition he gained from the people that Dayu established the first dynasty.

This is how social reality determines social consciousness.

If the imperial court of Shenzhou cannot concentrate and mobilize enough manpower and material resources, there is no way to control this terrifying river.

The Shenzhou Empire, which had been fighting the Yellow River for thousands of years, had a gap in engineering management capabilities before modern times.

After the completion of industrialization in modern times, China's engineering capabilities once again led the world in all aspects.

Duan Yucai did not think as deeply as Zhu Jianxuan. He simply looked down on the abilities of Europeans, but he also firmly believed in Zhu Jianxuan's judgment.

Zhu Jianxuan asked the Honglu Temple to handle the normal procedures for the Spanish delegation.

After receiving the notice from the Honglu Temple, Godoy and the Spanish Prime Minister hesitated whether to leave immediately.

"Do you want to wait a few more days and see?"

"Could it be that the message was not delivered to the Emperor and the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty?"

The two men were hesitant and continued to dawdle in Shuntian Prefecture for more than ten days. In the end, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty and the Crown Prince did not respond and did not summon them again.

The monarchs of vassal states from all over the Ming Dynasty began to come to Beijing. It was obvious that there were important internal affairs that needed to be dealt with, and the officials of the Ming Dynasty were about to ignore them.

Godoy and his companions could not bear it any longer and had no choice but to lead the Spanish delegation on board the ship and return.

It was already mid-August when the two set out from Shuntian Prefecture, and it was already early October when they arrived at the Isthmus of Suez again.

They were very lucky to catch up with something: the canal was officially open to navigation!
When Duan Yucai passed through the Suez Canal in May, the chief engineer of the canal company told Duan Yucai that the canal would be navigable before the end of the year.

That is actually a very conservative estimate.

The canal company has left a very large margin for various situations such as accidents, omissions, and unexpected situations.

In fact, no problems occurred during the construction process. After 300,000 workers were fully mobilized, the construction speed was stable and rapid.

The canal depth had reached the standard by mid-September, meeting the margin requirement.

Zhu Jianxuan's requirement was to ensure a water depth of fifteen meters, but the canal company actually built it based on a water depth of sixteen meters in order to prevent accidents that might cause the depth to not meet the standard at some point.

The construction team carefully checked the height and width of the riverbed along the entire canal, and on October 1st they officially opened the cofferdam to allow the water from the two oceans to merge.

When Godoy and the Spanish Prime Minister came to the canal again, it had just been open to navigation for a few days.

Since the canal was already open to navigation, the Spanish delegation no longer had to change trains or ships. They could directly board the fleet escorted by the Ming Dynasty and pass through the newly opened Suez Canal.

When the Spanish delegation's fleet entered the canal, the Ming Dynasty crew and members of the Spanish delegation all came to the deck to watch the excitement.

Most people were very excited, and many couldn't help shouting at the water in the canal.

Godoy also opened his eyes wide and looked at the river bank: "Now...now the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, the isolated waters are directly...directly connected! The ship can go directly across!"

Spanish Prime Minister Count Redondo of Bahia Blanca had more on his mind:
"It has only been less than three years since the Ming people occupied Egypt.

“It took the Ming people more than two years to build this huge canal.

“This matter does not seem to be difficult at all for Daming.

“But the Romans, the Arabs, the Ottomans, including the Mamluks, they ruled here for nearly two thousand years.

“It’s impossible that they didn’t think of building a canal?
"But why can't they do it? Why can the Ming people do it?"

Godoy's thoughts were relatively simple:
"Simply because the Egyptians, Romans, Arabs, and Ottomans all lacked the ability to do so.

“Only the Ming people have this ability.

“Perhaps if the people of the Ming Dynasty had always lived here, this canal would have existed for thousands of years, and the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope would have become meaningless.

"If the Ming people had occupied America, the Panama Canal would have been opened long ago..."

The two of them were talking and chatting about their feelings, when suddenly someone asked a question about the scene in the distance:

“The canal has already been opened, why are the workers over there still working?”

Godoy and the Prime Minister also looked up into the distance. In fact, they had already seen the fleet when it entered the canal.

On the other side of the railway next to the canal, the workers are still working hard:

"Just like when we came here, it's still stretched out in a long line."

"Is that digging? Do they want to continue expanding the canal?"

Godoy was not sure, so he asked the admiral of the Ming fleet that was transporting them back home. The admiral of the fleet was not very clear about the matter either.

However, the admiral asked the sailor of the canal company who was guiding them through the canal, and the sailor smiled and explained:

"That is to build another new canal, which will form a double line with this one after completion, so that ships can pass through at the same time and no one will have to stop to give way."

Godoy and the Spanish Prime Minister were stunned after hearing this:

"Double-track canal? It's fine if the road has double tracks, but this canal also has double tracks? This is too extravagant..."

"Instead of building a double canal here, we should build a canal in Panama..."

The sailor didn't say anything, but the admiral who was transporting them couldn't help but ask the two of them:
"Why should we go to Panama to build the canal? It's not our Ming Dynasty's land."

Prime Minister Godoy felt very uncomfortable, so uncomfortable that he was speechless.

After passing through the canal, the fleet sailed westward along the Mediterranean Sea and finally docked in Valencia on the east coast of Spain.

The Spanish delegation headed by Godoy went ashore and returned to Madrid by carriage.

After entering the city, he did not stop, but went to the palace immediately to report the situation of his trip to his king and queen.

The negotiation process, the conditions put forward by the Ming Dynasty, and finally the situation of the Suez Canal.

The king and queen specifically requested that they observe carefully when passing through the canal to make sure that the Ming people could really repair the canal.

After hearing this, Queen Maria of Spain said in astonishment:

“The Suez Canal is open?”

Godoy nodded:
"Yes, my majesty. The Ming warship we took this time went directly through the canal to the Mediterranean and took us to Valencia."

The queen said excitedly:

"The people of the Ming Dynasty are really amazing. They built the Suez Canal in just over two years.

“Even if the Panama Canal is more difficult, it will probably take at most five years to open!”

The Spanish Prime Minister immediately reminded the Queen:
"The Ming people's conditions were very harsh. They wanted all of Texas north of the Rio Grande and also the Baja California Peninsula.

“No matter how much we persuade and debate, the Ming Dynasty can only give up the Baja California Peninsula, and there will be no concessions on other conditions.

“And they won’t help us build a Ming-style palace unless we pay their construction company to do it.

"We have no way to decide. We can only come back and ask the King and Queen for advice..."

Queen Maria was obviously very regretful after hearing this:

"Your Excellency, do you think that the Ming Dynasty's conditions are worth exchanging for a Panama Canal?"

The Prime Minister said very entangledly:

“If we simply consider the current value, it can be considered worthwhile.

“Neither Texas nor Louisiana can afford much revenue to the kingdom.

"The Panama Canal can do that, and it saves a lot of money and risk.

“But territorial transactions cannot be simply calculated in this way.

“The value of the land will increase, and with future development and construction, it will be able to provide tax revenue.

“Even if we discover gold and silver mines in these places, the value of these lands will rise rapidly.

“The cost of the canal is fixed, and its value cannot increase dramatically.

"This kind of transaction is like exchanging land for food. We should avoid it if we can."

Queen Maria thought for a moment and said:
“In this case, is there a possibility that we can try to build the canal ourselves?

"If the Ming people can do it, why can't we Spaniards?

“To dig a canal, isn’t it just a matter of having enough laborers, bringing tools, and digging the dirt?
"I think we can give it a try, what do you think, Your Majesty?"

Queen Maria looked at King Carlos IV.

King Carlos IV didn't have much of his own opinion, but he also felt that what the queen said made sense.

If Ming Dynasty can do it, then so can I.

So Carlos IV also said directly:
"I think we can give it a try, what do you think, Your Excellency?"

The Spanish Prime Minister was a little panicked. Having been in power for many years, he could realize the gap between Spain and the Ming Dynasty.

However, he did not have the corresponding experience and knowledge in large-scale project management.

He also didn't know why the Ming Dynasty could do it.

So after a few seconds of hesitation and consideration, I said:
"I think I can try it."

Queen Maria immediately said:

"Okay, let's get started as soon as possible. Please ask Your Excellency the Count to organize manpower and start the construction of the Panama Canal as soon as possible.

“It took the Ming people less than three years to build the Suez Canal. The Panama Canal might be a little more difficult, so let’s assume it’s ten years.

"Opening up the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans within ten years should be a very conservative plan, right?"

The king, the prime minister, and Godoy all thought that what the queen said made sense.

We think we are not as good as the Ming Dynasty. What you Ming Dynasty people can accomplish in three to five years, we can probably do in ten years, right?

(End of this chapter)